People who buy and resell Disney items are targeted

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A visitor to Disneyland carries two Santa-themed alien popcorn buckets — the type sought after by collectors — in Anaheim, CA, on Friday, Nov 9, 2018. The buckets sold for $25 a piece and $2 for a refill. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Disneyland has been quietly revoking the annual passes of so-called “personal shoppers” and others who buy collectible merchandise inside the parks and then resell it, either to individuals or online, according to observers and people who say it happened to them.

The move demonstrates Disney’s powerful marketing savvy — and also the seemingly insatiable appetite of collectors who are willing to pay sometimes high markups for limited-edition merchandise that’s only sold inside the parks. Even items that seem mundane to the uninitiated — like plastic popcorn buckets made in China — can be feverishly sought-after by Disney collectors, when they’re carefully released in limited quantities for a short time only.

The collector craze has led to a secondary market ranging from small-time personal shoppers who go to the parks and fetch items for individual clients to resellers who buy large numbers of products and post on sites such as eBay.

Lately, observers say that Disney appears to have aggressively targeted these resellers, cancelling their annual passes under a provision in the passholder contract that bans people from using their discounts and then reselling items they purchased inside the parks.

Samantha Cudnohufsky, 25, of San Diego said she was surprised to receive a letter dated Nov. 16 informing her that her Disneyland pass was being revoked for one year.

“It came out of nowhere — I had no warning,” Cudnohufsky said, adding that she began operating a small personal shopping business about four years ago. “They took away my pass right before the holidays. … I had several people tell me that other people had been hit too.”

Even though her pass has been canceled, Cudnohufsky said she is still obligated to pay Disney monthly until May.

“They’re not stopping the payments,” Cudnohufsky said. “I still have to make my payments or they will send me to collection. It’s about $71 a month.”

Disney responded to requests for comment with a written statement that “Park Rules and Annual Pass Terms and Conditions are in place to help protect the experience for all of our Guests.”

Disneyland annual passports currently cost $549 to $1,149 per year, with most people making monthly payments. In addition to park admission, passholders receive discounts on many park items ranging from 10 percent to 20 percent, depending on the type of pass. Typically, a personal shopper or so-called “flipper” — someone who buys items on spec and then resells on auction sites — would use his or her annual pass at the store to get the discount, then mark up the item for sale.

Everyone interviewed for this story agrees that this violates the annual passholder agreement, which states that “benefits and discounts are for personal use only and may not be used for any commercial purpose including, without limitation, to obtain or purchase items or services with the intent to resell such items or services.”

Rose Keiser of Northridge, who runs the popular Gothic Rosie’s Disneyland Info page on Facebook, said she personally knows of three people who’ve had their passes revoked.

Keiser said she would like to see Disneyland ban so-called “flippers,” who buy as many as possible of hot merchandise with the intention of reselling online. She described standing in line to buy an item, only to find out it was sold out because someone ahead of her had just bought a large quantity.

“I think Disney is looking at the wrong group of people,” Keiser said. “Personal shoppers are not the problem. Flippers are the problem. A flipper is going to go to the park and walk out with 10 (collectible popcorn) buckets.”

Keiser said that, in some cases, flippers “will even turn to the end of the line in progress to sell to people who are at the back of the line.”

Disneyland often limits quantities of the hottest merchandise but Keiser said it’s up to the individual cast members to enforce the limits and there’s nothing to prevent a flipper from going to another store in the park and buying more.

It’s easy to find a Disneyland personal shopper these days on social media such as Facebook or Instagram, where it’s possible to buy specialized merchandise even from parks in other countries such as Disneyland Paris or Tokyo. Because Disney is so skillful at driving demand by limiting quantities, times and locations of its merchandise, some collectors become nearly desperate to obtain their favorite items, waiting in daylong lines or paying someone else to go to the park for them.

People reading Disneyland fan Facebook pages on Friday seemed overwhelmingly enthusiastic Friday about the prospect of fewer resellers in the park.

Many pass holders feel frustrated they can’t buy limited-edition merchandise because the resellers have already bought it all up.

“I don’t think they should be banned, but they should only be allowed to buy one (item) per family,” said passholder Rori Gelfand of Irvine.

Others were more blunt.

“Good riddance, they should’ve done that years ago,” one fan wrote on the Disneylanders Facebook fan page. Another cheered that “finally” she might be able to buy merchandise she was seeking.

Some observers speculate that Disney might be going after resellers now to encourage collectors to use its Shop Disney Parks app instead.

For example, thousands of fans avidly collect and trade Disney-themed purses, including from a company called Dooney & Bourke. In the past, a collector in Indiana, for example, might have hired a personal shopper to go to Disneyland and buy the latest product. Now, however, that same purse might be available on ShopDisney.com

Many personal shoppers got their start by offering to buy items for people who couldn’t get to the parks as a courtesy, later realizing they could make a bit of money from the practice.

“Honestly, I started this as a little side business to help people get stuff,” Cudnohufsky said. “It was just a little bit to help out. I knew Disney was greedy, but I didn’t know how greedy.”

Disneyland annual passholder Shaun McClure started a small business selling items he bought at the Disneyland Resort until his pass was revoked in 2018 by Disney. (Photo courtesy of Shaun McClure)

Shaun McClure, 37, said he started going to Disneyland regularly when a job kept him away from his family in Ventura County during the week. It was something to do that kept him active and didn’t involve going to a bar.

Over time, he developed a small personal shopping business on social media under the name Main Street Treats and, later, began to sell on eBay. He remembers that his first item sold was a popcorn bucket to a collector in Ohio. He estimated that he’s earned an average of $200-300 a month reselling merchandise such as collectible pins, which are released on Thursdays and sold only in limited quantities.

“At times, it was more labor intensive than it was even worth,” McClure said. “It was quite a bit of work to go to the park, get everything, box it up and ship it. It was just a way to keep myself busy at night.”

McClure said his family has six passes altogether, including his wife, children and other relatives. He said he received no notification from Disney that his pass had been revoked until he went onto the Disneyland app and discovered that his and his wife’s passes had been blocked out.

“I called the number on the back of my pass and they explained my account had been linked to a social media page selling Disney merchandise, so we were blocked,” McClure said. “They told me after a 12-month period, I could be reinstated. To be frank, I’d never read any of the terms and conditions on the pass.”

McClure described himself as a “huge Disney fan” but now feels “a little bit of animosity toward them.”

“I kind of feel like they’re making enough money,” McClure said. “Why do they have to go after the little people?”

Cudnohufsky said that, after she got the letter saying her pass was revoked — but not why — she called the guest communications department to find out more.

“I immediately called, but they couldn’t give me any information,” Cudnohufsky said. ” They told me my calling them confirmed that I got the letter. They said someone would be in contact with me later on.”

Cudnohufsky said she received a phone call on Nov. 21 from ” a woman who informed me my pass was revoked because I was purchasing items, selling them and making a profit against Disney. She stated I could write a letter to Guest Services stating I was not aware of the policy.”

In its annual passholders contract, Disney “reserves the right to cancel, suspend or revoke any Passport or deny Theme Park admission to any Passholder at any time for any reason.”

“People are always buying stuff and selling it from the stores,” Cudnohufsky said. She plans to appeal and hopes to get her pass reinstated. Meanwhile, she’s still paying.

Despite the revocations, people say they still love Disneyland and would like to go back to the park, if they were able.

“Disney has been a huge part of my life since I was 3,” Cudnohufsky said. “My middle name is Belle, like the princess.”

McClure said his wife wants to go the park during the holidays, even if it means buying regular tickets, but so far he hasn’t agreed. He said he’s not sure why his wife’s pass was revoked because she wasn’t involved in his business, but his children still have valid passes. He said no one told him he could appeal his suspension.

“Deep down, I really do want to go back,” McClure said. “It’s a place I grew up with. We really love to spend time there.”

Marla Jo Fisher was a workaholic hard news reporter before she adopted two children from foster care at age 46, picked up a scruffy dog along the way and somehow managed to keep them all alive, at least so far. She now writes the Frumpy Middle-Age Mom humor column that appears in the Orange County Register weekly. Due to her status as the cheapest person alive, she also writes about deals and bargains for the Register, including her Cheapo Travel column which also runs in newspapers around the country. When she's not having a nervous breakdown, she's usually traveling somewhere cheaply and writing about it.